Many SLU-Madrid students are concerned about the consequences of current President Donald Trump’s actions taken in his first 30 days in office.
“We’ve got to take it day-by-day…but the first 30 days probably aren’t the worst we’ll see,” said Macy Ellis, a political science major from the U.S.
In the Nov. 2024 General Elections, former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump defeated then-Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for the country’s top office. Trump won by a wide margin, collecting 312 of the necessary 270 electoral college votes to be crowned winner. The sitting president has stirred controversy for his early decisions. According to Time Magazine, President Trump signed 26 executive orders on his first day. This has resulted in a federal funding pause for government organizations like USAID, the end of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative and mass firings of government employees, among others significant changes.
Trump’s orders quickly made waves in the lives of ordinary American citizens. For individuals like Ellis, the long-term effects are looking grave.
“My dad’s a federal employee, he works for the Department of Defense,” Ellis said. “I’m going to graduate in December, and USAID was one of my main prospects. [The funding freeze] just limited half the career choices I could have.”
With sarcastic laughter, she added: “My jobs are out the door!”
Ellis said she found Trump’s decision to eliminate USAID, an organization that provides international relief, to be particularly “abhorrent” and unexpected. She emphasized that millions of people overseas will be left without basic necessities, like water, nutrition services and vaccines.
She noted that her father is unlikely to be affected by the Trump Administration’s layoff plans across federal agencies. But, he has still felt a shift in expectations since the presidential transition.
In particular, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has presented a new challenge for federal employees. In late February, Musk sent out an email to all federal workers, asking them to outline their weekly duties or be fired, according to CNN. This initiative was highly contested, with leaders at the Pentagon, FBI, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy instructing staff not to reply.
Emily Podgorny, a second-year student from St. Louis, fears Musk’s DOGE is doing more harm than good.
“I definitely think there can be a future issue with having a big tech person in the federal government,” she said. “He is a business man before anything else.”
Podgorny doubts that Musk has the best interests of American citizens in mind. She mentioned how a handful of DOGE employees recently resigned because they were concerned with how their work negatively affected the “well-being of the American people.” The 21 DOGE staffers wrote a joint resignation letter explaining that they refused to “dismantle critical public services” in their roles at the DOGE, according to the Associated Press.
Hector Proano, 18, believes Trump’s actions are part of his strategy of “political theater.” He pointed to the contentious meeting Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28.
“[Trump] and [J.D. Vance] were making a bunch of statements about respect and gratitude,” he said. “It’s all just things that aren’t relevant to the question at hand, but show, in a quick second, that the [U.S.] is the one in charge.”
Still, there are students who are happy with Trump’s performance so far.
“I am a big fan of Trump,” said international business major Thomas Zych. “I voted for him.”
Zych approves of the American president’s decision to dismantle DEI, which he claimed was “unnecessary in the first place.” Furthermore, he supports the administration’s positioning on the Ukraine War, though he concedes that the aforementioned meeting with Zelenskyy “didn’t go quite well.”
“But, I think [Trump’s] making a lot of necessary points—as in, the U.S. needs to stop funding things that don’t directly concern them,” Zych said.
Yet, worries about Trump’s decisions are traveling across borders. An international relations student from Venezuela fears the loss of democracy in the U.S.
“Right now, the U.S. is dealing with Populism, and this is no fun,” the student said. “As a Venezuelan person, I can tell you that.”
The student emphasized that Trump’s actions have resembled those of Populist leaders who eventually “demolished democracy” in their countries, despite the fact that they were once democratically elected. He claimed that Trump “has more similarities to dictators than an actual president.”
Though concerned, the student said he wasn’t surprised by the actions taken by Trump since his inauguration.
“A lot of people didn’t expect [Trump] to follow through [with his campaign promises] because of his previous term,” said the student. “He barked a lot, but didn’t bite a lot.”
Then, he added: “But now, he’s biting the f*ck out of all of us.”
